7 Top Twitter Music Teachers to Follow

The Guardian's list of some of the best tweeters out there covering everything from lesson planning to music based chat.  These are the teachers out there keeping the subject alive on social media channels. Feel free to share other recommendations in the comments or GoldenMusicColo and follow #musicteachers for more tips and ideas.

Laura Jackson, @mrsjacksonmusic  Secondary school teacher Laura starts most of her tweets or posts with a music clip or picture. She blogs about enriching the learning experience for children by finding out what motivates them. Laura also showcases a range of creative techniques as demonstrated below to help get children excited about music.   We love this tweet and (more or less ... ahem) cracked the code.  Laura uses videos that tell stories through music in class to help children connect emotionally to the songs. In the past students have been reduced to tears, she writes.

Nadine Andre, @nadineonkeys  An established pianist and music teacher, Nadine thinks every child should have the chance to learn how to play an instrument because it can have a big impact on their development.  Her Twitter feed is a fun mix of updates about her own classical music work and her favourite foods.  She also shares all her favourite comments, blogs and inspiring quotes.  With a focus on the health benefits music can bring Nadine says we must move away from being just about results.  She offers advice for those who write their own music on how to get it written down and heard.

Anna Gower, @tallgirlwgc  Anna is head of community music at Monk’s Walk School. She is an advanced skills teacher and never planned to teach music but her involvement in her local council music service led her to become development director at Musical Futures (@musicalfutures), a programme to re-engage kids with music in school.  She often uses her own experiences in her reflective blogs, which cover a range of subjects. She writes: “I think I was incredibly lucky and the reason I studied music to a high level was because of the strong foundations I had from the very start of primary school.”

Ben Jose, @Mrjosemusic   Ben gives his pupils at Cotham Co-operative Academy clear steps towards progression as well as teaching musical terminology via his Music Making Map, which we were very impressed with. His blog is relatively new and you can read his first post here.

Alex Laing, @AlexLaing   As well as head of strings at Uppingham School, Alex is founder and artistic director of the Darwin Ensemble Chamber Orchestra. His twitter feed is a mix of the comment articles he likes and lots of information about classical music.

Liz Gleed, @MrsGleedMusic   A keen choral conductor, Liz teaches at Bristol Cathedral Choir School, a non-selective 11-18 specialist music academy in Bristol. She loves the rewards and challenges of her role. She recently shared her new year resolutions in a blog - number one on her list was to keep singing at the heart of her  classroom.  Read more of Liz’s new term resolutions.

@ukmusiced  If you feel like getting involved in music based conversation, @ukmusiced (a twitter-based chat forum) run a Twitter forum for 30 minutes every Sunday evening at 9pm.